Shades of Death!!!

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   Long before the first settlers came to the 
area of Shades State Park, Native Americans 
lived among the virgin forest, steep 
ravines and cliff areas along Sugar Creek. 
Legends claim that a large Piankeshaw 
village, a component of the diversified 
Miami tribe, lived on what is now park 
land. Legend also implies that a decisive 
Native American battle was fought by 600 
warriors, the losing tribe having only 5 of 
the 12 survivors. 
Although this battle is only legend, one 
may be assured that these Native Americans 
and French voyagers played an 
important role in the rich history leading 
to the settlement of Indiana. 
The first settlers came to this area around 
the late 1820s after the Miami tribe ceded 
the land to the federal government in 1818. 
The shallow soils and broken topography of 
the lands that border Sugar Creek provided 
little enticement to farmers, thus the majority 
of the forest escaped destruction. 

One story of the area attributes the illusion of deep 
shadows beneath the nearly unbroken canopy of 
these forests and the eerie feeling projected by the 
“black forest” as the reason for the early name, “The 
Shades of Death.” Other people, however, say the 
name resulted due to the warlike Native Americans 
who occupied this natural stronghold along Sugar 
Creek and the legend of an early settler being killed. 
Another story that contributed to the gloomy name 
claimed that a young settler’s wife buried an axe in 
her wicked husband’s head. Finally the “Shades of 
Death” name, considered unsavory, was dropped to 
simply “The Shades.” These examples of the legends 
and folklore of the area are often topics for campfires 
at naturalist activities. 

The results of a government survey of 1815 noted 
as landmarks a series of natural springs in a ravine 
area that played an important part in the history of 
Shades. In 1886, the Garland Dells Mineral Springs 
Association was organized and land was purchased 
and rented to develop a health resort and recreation 
area named “The Shades.” In 1887 a 40-room inn was 
built on the location of the shelter house near Devil’s 
Punchbowl (this inn has since been razed because 
of fire damage and maintenance costs). 

The person who had been named the “Father of 
Shades,” Joseph W. Frisz, purchased stock in the 
Dells Mineral Springs Association in 1909 and gained 
complete control in 1916 of this Association. Frisz 
safeguarded the natural areas and dense forests, 
while purchasing additional tracts of land, until the 
late 1930s. Shades scenic park comprised 2,200 
acres. The park boasted the scenic inn set in a grove 
of mature oak trees, hiking trails, swimming, fishing 
and natural spring water. 

In early 1947, the park was purchased from Frisz’s 
heirs by a holding company until a public subscription 
campaign (“Save the Shades”) raised the purchase 
money. Shades became the 15th state park and was 
hence saved from the timber cutters, who would have 
used the majority of the oak timber for whiskey barrels.

The above copied from the free brochure (available in the link or in person), but 1/2 of which is printed upside-down, on the web site.